Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

While all other road transport services including buses and minibuses are about to resume operations from today, people planning on availing ridesharing services in the capital and other major cities will have to contend with bad news.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has asked all rideshating service providing companies to keep their operations suspended until further notice, citing the country’s Covid-19 situation.

“We sent the letter in this regard to all [12] service providing companies yesterday,” Lokman Hossain Mollah, director (engineering) of BRTA told The Daily Star yesterday.

The letter did not mention any reason.

However, BRTA’s Acting Chairman Yousub Ali Mollah said they decided to halt the operations as most vehicles under ridesharing services are motorcycles, and maintaining social distancing might be difficult for passengers and riders.

“If the situation changes, we will consider resuming this services,” he told this newspaper.

Ridesharing services, which have gained massive popularity in the capital and a few other cities, were suspended from March 26 when the government enforced a shutdown of most public and private offices as well as public transport, to contain the spread of Covid-19.

On Thursday, the government announced the reopening of all offices and public transport on a limited scale while following necessary health safety guidelines from yesterday. Train and launch services have already resumed yesterday and bus services will resume today.

COMPANIES WANT TO RESUME OPERATIONS

Asked about the decision, Maliha M Quadir, founder and managing director of Shohoz, one of the major ride-share service providers, said the government should allow them to resume services.

“People will prefer ridesharing services to any other public transport at this time, because ridesharing is safer than buses and other public transports,” she told The Daily Star yesterday.

Asked about the safety of motorbike services, she said riders and service seekers are both wearing masks, so the chances of virus transmission are low.

She said they got the letter on Saturday night, and would talk to other service providing companies before giving their response to BRTA.

Sayeda Nabila Mahabub, director (marketing and public relations) at Pathao, said commuting services with their app having been suspended for the past two months, they have observed that ridesharing has already resumed through offline, solicited trips.

“As such, ridesharing users are denied access to safe, secure rides with appropriate health measures in place, and are having to turn to more unsafe options like offline trips or to other forms of public transportation where social distancing cannot be properly maintained,” she told The Daily Star.

“Therefore, in the greater interest of the health, safety, and convenience of commuters, we urge BRTA to allow the resumption of Pathao’s ridesharing services on June 1, in line with its instructions for other forms of public transportation,” she added.